Advanced Directive Information

Some facts about Americans and their healthcare.*

Less than 50 percent of the severely or terminally ill patients studied had an advance directive
in their medical record.

Only 12 percent of patients with an advance directive had received input from their physician
in its development.

Between 65 and 76 percent of physicians whose patients had an advance directive were not
aware that it existed.

42% of Americans have had a friend or relative suffer from a terminal illness or coma in the last five years and for a majority of these people and 23% of the general public, the issue of withholding life sustaining treatment came up.

An overwhelming majority of the public supports laws that give patients the right to decide whether they want to be kept alive through medical treatment.

By more than eight-to-one (84%-10%), the public approves of laws that let terminally ill patients make decisions about whether to be kept alive through medical treatment.

One of the most striking changes between 1990 and 2005 is the growth in the number of people who say they have a living will – up 17 points, from 12% in 1990 to 29% now.

*U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality & The Pew Research Center